


Out of the Grave

by DoreyG



Category: Vampyr (Video Game)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Blood and Violence, First Time, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon, Working Together Against an Outside Threat, consensual cannibalism, vampire powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:41:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27646982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: “I was doing my rounds earlier tonight, and I noticed that one of my current residents was missing from his bed. This wouldn’t usually have worried me, it wasn’t that late after all, but the man has been recently ill and is generally far too sensible to go wandering off on a night as cold as this. I went in search of him, and was just in time to stop an Ekon from feeding on him. I managed to save him and drive the Ekon off, just, but it was a far closer thing than I would’ve liked.”Reid looked concerned. Had, in fact, looked openly concerned all throughout his story. “Is he alright? Areyoualright, for that matter?”“At the moment, yes,” he said, not sure what to do with the fact that Reid genuinely seemed to care. It would all be so much easier, if he was a sneering aristocrat instead of the genuinely good and decent man that he seemed to try so hard to be. “But if he does come back tomorrow night, as he promised to do before he left, then I don’t think that he, I or any of the other people I care for will be.”
Relationships: Sean Hampton/Jonathan Reid
Comments: 13
Kudos: 31
Collections: Heart Attack Exchange 2020





	Out of the Grave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Masu_Trout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/gifts).



The first indication he had that something was wrong was when he noticed that Adam Green, a poor dockhand who was down on his luck, wasn’t in the bed that he’d taken two nights ago. This wouldn’t have aroused any concern with many of his other guests, this was a shelter not a prison and people were free to roam where they would, but it did with Adam. The reason he currently needed the services of the night asylum was because of the lingering effects of a bad case of pneumonia, and he still wasn’t able to leave his bed for very long even in the middle of the very sunniest day. He wouldn’t have wandered away on a freezing night in the middle of the winter unless something was wrong.

He considered just searching through the night shelter like a human, seeing if Adam had accidentally locked himself in one of the side rooms and needed a friendly hand to get him out, but… No. He was slightly less comfortable with his new abilities than he had been when first turned, due in part to the kindly meant intervention of the good Doctor Reid, but it would be foolish not to make use of every skill that he had at his disposal. He stood in the middle of his room, took in a deep breath and carefully opened his senses up.

What he saw, Adam’s familiar pulse beating sluggishly next to a darkly wreathed stranger, had him bolting instantly from his room and running outside.

“Stop!”

The Ekon, not a Skal or one of those Vulkod creatures that Old Bridget had mentioned to him the last time he’d gone down to help in the continued clean up efforts, had been just about to bite into poor Adam’s neck when he’d bolted around the corner. He hesitated for a moment, a moment so long that he genuinely thought that he was about to see a man drained dry right in front of his eyes, and then made a downright snooty noise of disgust and turned to face him.

He was handsome in his way, he supposed, but those natural looks were absolutely ruined by the arrogant cast of his face. He was looking at an aristocrat, he knew instinctively, the kind of person who never came near the docks unless it was to exploit somebody less powerful than them for fun and profit.

An uncharitable thought, he knew, but he suspected an entirely accurate one. He took in a deep breath, knowing that he had no hope of standing against the Ekon if he chose to use the full extent of his powers, and summoned up a small fake smile. “Can I help you?”

“I doubt very much that a Skal like you could do anything for me,” the Ekon sneered, but did at least take a step away from the still rapt Adam. It was a step closer to him, which was unfortunate, but better he got mangled than any of the innocent humans under his care. “Unless you’re willing to leave this patch immediately, and not darken my doorstep again.”

“This isn’t a patch,” he said, still keeping his voice perfectly calm. He’d faced worse than this, after all, even if that fact was slightly hard to remember with an Ekon scornfully staring him down. “Perhaps you’re lost, sir. This is the Night Asylum-”

“I’m not lost, Skal. I know exactly where I am,” the Ekon interrupted him, that sneer still firmly upon his face. Like he was nothing at all, like he should be bowing down and acting submissive instead of daring to irritate his betters by continuing to exist. “And where I am is a veritable feeding ground that needs careful cultivation, one that I’m not willing to leave in the hands of a pathetic creature like you.”

He was used to bowing down, far too used to it, but he wasn’t going to do so when lives were at stake. He took in a deep breath, clenched his hands into fists and stood his ground. “I protect these people, I don’t feed off them. Please, leave this place alone. It’s my life’s work.”

The Ekon looked amused at that, took another slow and threatening step closer to him. He had the decided feeling that the man was playing with him, teasing him with his presence when he could’ve so easily darted over and taken care of him. “Excellent. If I end your miserable life, a kindness that you really should be grateful to me for by the way, then that becomes no longer an issue.”

He kept standing his ground, even though he knew the Ekon could probably see his fear. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”

“What?” The Ekon laughed. “Are _you_ going to stop me? Or the walking blood bags you call people? Spare me. I was expecting a meal tonight, not a full on comedy routine from a sewer dwelling piece of scum.”

“No, I’m not going to stop you,” he said quietly, speaking faster and faster as the Ekon - with naked hunger in his eyes - advanced further and further. “And neither are the people here. But you should know, before you touch any of us, that we’re all under the protection of a far stronger man.”

“You must be joking,” the Ekon sniffed, lifting a hand that was already starting to ripple and morph into a shadowy claw. “Who would want to protect a thing like you? You’ve been amusing enough, Skal, but if you’re willing to tell lies like that…”

“It’s not a lie,” he interrupted, and hurried on as the Ekon’s eyes narrowed in naked wrath and he drew his hand back for a doubtlessly devastating swipe. “Have you ever heard of an Ekon by the name of Doctor Jonathan Reid?”

There was a long, echoing silence.

“You’re joking,” the Ekon repeated, but in a slightly more uncertain tone. His shadowy claw of a hand hung in the air for a long moment more, a far too long moment in his humble opinion, and then withdrew very suddenly. “Reid, one of the most powerful vampires in England… Why on earth would he be interested in a pathetic creature like you?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” he said, because he wasn’t, but immediately rallied when the Ekon’s face wrinkled in confusion. It wasn’t just his life that was at stake here, he couldn’t allow this man to prey on his entire flock. “Perhaps he sees something in me, a pathetic skal, that you’re not powerful enough to. Perhaps he’s simply a good man who doesn’t want to see innocents come to harm. Either way, you take action here and you’ll suffer his wrath.”

The Ekon stared at him for a long moment more, obviously torn, and then made an aristocratic noise of disgust and turned away. He hopped easily up on the wall of the asylum, turned back to stare at him like he was some kind of bug who was irritatingly refusing to be crushed. “I still think that you’re joking, or simply lying to save your own miserable skin…”

He smiled beatifically, projecting a confidence that he didn’t at all feel. “You’re not certain though, are you?”

“ _But_ I suppose I can hold off from feeding for just a little while longer.” The Ekon sniffed over him, drew himself up in his most aristocratic and haughty way. It looked somewhat ridiculous, with him perched on a wall as he was. “I will return tomorrow night. But believe me, if- _When_ I discover that you were telling falsehoods just to give yourself a few hours more my retribution will be even worse than if you had just been sensible and told me the truth.”

He smiled politely, and raised his hand in a wave goodbye. The Ekon sent him another look of disgust, seeming downright disappointed at the lack of terrified begging, and dropped down on the other side of the wall with the grace inherent to a true vampire.

Which left him all alone with a hypnotised man and roughly twenty four hours before a far more powerful vampire would come back and rip him limb from limb for daring to speak back to him. Hardly, he had to admit as he ran a shaking hand over his face, the most promising situation that he’d ever faced.

\--

He didn’t regret any of the choices that had led him to being a Skal, not really, but he did wish that he could just walk into the Pembroke and ask for Doctor Reid’s help openly. As it was he was reduced to lurking around the perimeter and waiting for the majority of people to either fall asleep or grow tried enough that they stopped paying attention, knowing full well that if he did walk in the front door he would be greeted with screams at best and a rapidly summoned policeman at worst.

He sighed, and hunkered down further into his coat. He wasn’t cold, he didn’t really experience cold in the same way anymore, but he could feel the sting of it against his cheeks and knew that if he’d still been human he would’ve been shuddering desperately. As it was he just had to settle for being tense, and anxious, and faintly miserable in a way that he rarely allowed himself to indulge in.

The truth of the matter was that he didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want there to be an Ekon threatening his flock. He didn’t want to be scared to go home alone, to be jumping at every shadow and wondering if it’d bring the end of all that he held dear. He didn’t want to have to go crawling to Reid again, to have to ask for help once more. He didn’t _want_...

“Sean?” A familiar, cultured voice interrupted his thoughts. Just as he was starting to muse, as self-destructively as ever, on how much he hated the passion of his desires at times.

“Oh!” He said, a little startled, and spun around to see Reid standing behind him. The man didn’t look particularly annoyed at his presence, only kindly curious, and he genuinely wasn’t sure if that made the entire situation better or worse. “I’m sorry, doctor. I wasn’t expecting you to see me all the way out here.”

“I always pay attention to whatever is going on outside the Pembroke, just in case. And I’m always attuned to you whenever you’re in my vicinity, Sean, have no fear,” Reid said, almost _casually_ , and just carried on while he was still trying to decide how on earth he should deal with being told something like that. “You can’t be comfortable out here, not on a night like this. Would you like to come up to my office?”

“No,” he said, and then realized that he’d sounded a little sharper than intended and hurried on while Reid was still blinking. “I don’t want to cause any extra difficulties for you.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be a trouble,” Reid said kindly, which _definitely_ made the whole situation worse, and sent him a distractingly lovely smile. “I could make it so that nobody noticed you, I’m sure. Not that anybody is paying all that much attention anyway, at this time of night. You’d be perfectly safe…”

“No. No, thank you,” he said, slightly sharper than intended yet again.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go up to Reid’s office. No, that was actually the exact opposite of the problem he was facing. He desperately wanted to go up to Reid’s office, and sit alone with him in an enclosed space for hours on end. He wanted to talk to the man as an equal, and laugh at his jokes, and maybe tease him a little in return… And also, with a passion that startled him with its intensity, wanted to glare at the man and make veiled jabs at his own arrogance and maybe even scream in his face a little. 

His feelings towards Reid were incredibly complicated, an ever shifting mass of resentment and admiration and anger and affection and unbridled lust that swirled in his stomach and made him endlessly confused. He felt as uncertain as a babe around Reid constantly, more uncertain than he’d been since he’d left Dublin for the last time.

“Very well,” Reid said, watching him closely. He wondered, for half a second, if Reid was reading his whirl of thoughts and dismissed in a second later. Some makers could do that with their progeny, but he wasn’t exactly Reid’s progeny. “I’m guessing that this isn’t a social call, then?”

“No, unfortunately- Ah, no it isn’t,” he said, and internally cursed the tangling of his tongue. This would all be so much easier if he could maintain his dignity around Reid for more than a handful of moments at a time. “I was doing my rounds earlier tonight, and I noticed that one of my current residents was missing from his bed. This wouldn’t usually have worried me, it wasn’t that late after all, but the man has been recently ill and is generally far too sensible to go wandering off on a night as cold as this. I went in search of him, and was just in time to stop an Ekon from feeding on him. I managed to save him and drive the Ekon off, but it was a far closer thing than I would’ve liked.”

Reid looked concerned. Had, in fact, looked openly concerned all throughout his story. “Is he alright? Are _you_ alright, for that matter?”

“At the moment, yes,” he said, genuinely not sure what to do with the fact that Reid genuinely seemed to care. “But if he does come back tomorrow night, as he promised to do before he left, then I don’t think that he, I or any of the other people I care for will be.”

“I can understand your worry,” Reid said solemnly, and he experienced the brief and rather disorientating desire to reach out and shake the man until he showed just a little less kindness. “Can I help with the situation at all?”

“As a matter of fact…” He drew in a deep breath, girded himself for what was to come. He didn’t like asking for help, especially not from a person who he had as many complicated emotions about as Reid, but he had no other option. And at least in this case, though he wasn’t sure how much of a positive that actually was all things considered, he wouldn’t have his weakness rubbed in his face for years to come. “You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I didn’t drive the Ekon off with a display of my own physical prowess. In the end, he would only leave when I told him that I was under the protection of somebody more powerful. You, to be exact.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Reid said, and his seemingly perpetual calm finally broke in favour of a startled blink. Suddenly the man seemed uncertain, ruffled in a way that he’d never seen him before even when a lot more blood had been involved. “Forgive me for my surprise, I just didn’t think-”

“No, neither did I.” He watched several complicated expressions flit across Reid’s face, and felt a certain amount of complicated emotions at them himself. He was pleased to finally shake the man, in a way, but also felt terribly guilty about it. A large part of him still wanted to just run back home, bury his head in the nearest pile of sand and never think about any of this ever again. “I wouldn’t have usually, I swear, but I didn’t feel like I had any other option. This Ekon, this strange man, was going to walk into my Night Asylum and destroy everything that I’ve worked so very hard to protect. And… And I can’t lie, I was scared.”

“Sean, it’s alright,” Reid said, pitching his voice deliberately soothing in a way that obviously wasn’t meant to annoy, but that did. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, not over a matter as sensitive as this. I’m happy to help you out, in any way you need.”

That was a shock, even knowing what a decent man Reid generally was. He blinked up at him uncertainly, felt a rising bubble of hope briefly in his chest before he managed to squash it. “You are?”

“Always,” Reid said softly, and reached out to gently touch his shoulder. They stood there for a long few moments, staring at each other silently with Reid’s hand on him like a brand, before the man finally sighed and took a reluctant step away from him. “Just let me go get my coat, then we can return to the shelter as soon as possible.”

\--

They went back to the night asylum together. He didn’t want to enjoy a single part of the process, he really didn’t, but he had to reluctantly admit that it was far easier to get around town when he had Reid at his side. Matters had been a lot more peaceful, since Reid had done whatever he had to save London and put an end to the threat, but that didn’t change the fact that London was a dangerous city to walk around at night even for a man who had a reputation as a terminal do-gooder.

They got back to the night asylum in good time, still in the middle of the night when he’d been expecting to be out until dawn desperately trying to force himself to ask for help, and he wasted no time in leading Reid over to where the Ekon had threatened him. It was a perfectly ordinary stretch of wall, it hardly looked fit for a showdown of such a magnitude.

“It was right here,” he explained anyway, instead of musing on the proper drama of the thing. He gestured demonstratively at the spot of ground, and was surprised when Reid actually examined it. “He was trying to feed from Adam, as I said, and then he left Adam and came walking over to where we’re standing now. And then, once I threatened him with you, he jumped up on that wall. And then… I must confess, I’m not entirely sure where he went after that.”

“Hm,” Reid said thoughtfully, and continued staring hard at the spot he’d pointed out. At the area in general, as if he was sensing things on a whole different level.

It was ridiculous, he knew that even as he thought it, but soon he started to worry that Reid would think that he was telling fibs. A long lasting relic of his time in the orphanage, where he was never believed even if he did speak up, but a powerful one. Before long he started to shift on the balls of his feet, started to rock uncomfortably as he fought the urge to just start babbling in an attempt to defend himself.

“I can see his trail,” Reid said mercifully, just as he was about to make a complete fool of himself. “He’s fairly young, a few months younger than even me by my reckoning. And he’s new to London, he doesn’t have the scent of Ascalon on him and I doubt they’d accept somebody quite that unwise into their ranks anyway. He’s not that powerful. Definitely an Ekon, not a Skal, but unless he was determined I doubt he could face up to that many threats.”

It was a relief, in a way, but made him feel absurdly guilty in another. He shifted on his heels again, attempted to look thoughtful instead of mired in complicated thoughts yet again. “So I didn’t need to summon you?”

“No. No, I think it was for the best that you did,” Reid said hastily, and the look he briefly cast at him was all concern. Like he did actually care, which was a concept he still had very little idea what to do with. “He’s not strong by Ekon standards, but Ekon standards mean very little when applied to humans or even Skals. He’d probably have a significant amount of trouble with me, but with your people or even you…”

“He’d tear through us all like wet paper,” he provided, and swallowed convulsively. He felt a little weak, fearful in a way that he’d rarely experienced since he’d walked into this brand new life. “I see.”

“Sorry, Sean. It’s not that I mean to upset you…” Reid trailed off, and stared at him slightly awkwardly. There was a long moment of hesitation, Reid obviously wanting to comfort him but not entirely sure how to go about it. Their relationship was so awkward ever since Reid had stabilised him, it was like there were suddenly a thousand lines that neither of them knew how to cross. “He didn’t indicate that he’d come back tonight?”

“No, he explicitly said tomorrow,” he said, knowing that it was a blatant distraction technique - from all the complicated layers that were between them - but feeling absurdly grateful for it anyway. “And I didn’t get the sense he was lying about that. I mean, I know I don’t have any fancy Ekon skills to back that up-”

“Sean, good sense is far more valuable than Ekon skills in situations like this,” Reid said solemnly, and he experienced the old urge to writhe awkwardly at a compliment sincerely given. “And you have a great deal more good sense than anybody I know.”

“Well, thank you,” he said a touch awkwardly, surprised to find himself genuinely pleased by the compliment. He was glad that blushing no longer seemed to work the same way for him, now that blood moved slightly differently through his body, as if it had he would’ve been a truly embarrassing shade of red. “I think I rattled him, when I mentioned your name. He’ll need a night or so to recover himself, to decide that I really was lying after all and that I deserve to be punished for my impertinence.”

Reid looked unimpressed, which was another flattering thing that he wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with. “A very typically aristocratic way of behaving, I must say.”

“I don’t know,” he said, a little distracted by the thought of Reid caring for him enough to be unimpressed on his behalf. “You’re upper class, from what you’ve told me, and I’ve never noticed you punishing people for daring to exist in your presence.”

“No, admittedly. But I know I’ve behaved remarkably high handedly with people several times. And although the effects have generally been positive, I can’t help but regret the way that I’ve gone about it on occasion,” Reid said slowly, a touch hesitantly. They both knew what he was talking about, and they both stared at each other awkwardly as the knowledge of that settled over them. “I think I’m going to stick around here for tonight.”

“Oh no,” he said, having genuinely not expected Reid - or anybody, really - to go quite so far for him. “It’s too much of an imposition-”

“I fully believe that the staff of the Pembroke are capable of running the hospital for one night without my presence,” Reid interrupted him, not cruelly or even particularly arrogantly but with a firmness that he somewhat resented anyway. “Or however many nights it takes to secure this situation. I want to make sure that you, and your people, are safe, Sean.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, in an interaction not quite tense enough to be a struggle but not quite relaxed enough to be a simple exchanging of looks. He wasn’t precisely upset, but he was experiencing the usual complicated cocktail of emotions that he always did around Reid and that made him significantly more on edge than he otherwise would’ve been.

“Okay,” he said eventually, reluctantly aware that he didn’t really have any other option if he wanted to protect his people.

“Good,” Reid said, still watching him carefully.

“Well, since I can’t stop you I suppose I better make use of you,” he said with mock jollity, resigning himself to the situation as well as he’d resigned himself to everything else in life. He wasn’t entirely sure that he pulled the impression of good humour off, but he supposed that even an attempt was better than nothing. “Are you alright with checking around the perimeter, making sure that he doesn’t sneak round the back and try to pick off any of my flock? I’m alright staying inside, making sure that everybody is all okay in there.”

“Alright,” Reid said, accepting the orders far easier than he thought he would’ve. Yet again he reflected, ruefully, on what a truly nice man he was and how much more complicated that made things. “You’ll call me if you need me?”

He reflected, for a long moment, on how little he wanted to need anyone. Especially Reid, with his kindness and his almost apologies and his way of seeing vulnerabilities that he’d tried so very hard to hide. He hadn’t ever wanted a big shouldered, worryingly handsome vampire to barge into his life and turn it upside down in the kindest of ways. He still wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or resentful, and trying to balance them both at once was one of the most tiring things he’d ever done.

But he couldn’t say that out loud, and Reid was still staring at him and waiting for a reply.

“Yes, I will. If I need you,” he said awkwardly, knowing that it was hardly the most comprehensive answer he could’ve given, and returned to the inside of the asylum without a single backwards glance.

\--

It was only when light started to show just over the horizon that he accepted that the other Ekon wasn’t coming back just yet. It’d been all night, and apart from jumping at shadows and watching Reid flit around the perimeter nothing more of note had occurred.

He watched Reid now, as a matter of fact. He stood just outside the doors of the asylum, and looked up at where Reid was perched on one of the encircling walls like it was absolutely natural to be quite so high. Safe in the knowledge that Reid wasn’t paying attention to him in return, the other man’s attention firmly fixed on any threats coming from outside, he was finally free to look his fill. To notice those broad shoulders, that elegant bearing, that dark hair like a smudge of shadow against the flickering light cast by the gas lamps. To feel… What? Not quite uncomplicated wariness, but also not quite uncomplicated lust. Just another mess of emotion, in between those two points and yet paying no resemblance to them at all.

He could’ve stared until the sun came up, and perhaps even longer than that if given the strength. But he wasn’t entirely devoid of sense, as much as he tended to act like it around Reid, and so he sighed instead and resolved to actually talk to the man. He took two quick steps away from the shelter, focused all of his energy and attempted to leap.

Reid noticed him at the last moment, and that was the only reason he didn’t humiliatingly tumble back to the ground and incur injuries even worse than the other Ekon would’ve inflicted upon him. He caught his arm in a tight grip, and pulled him up onto the wall properly. “Are you alright?”

“Yes. It’s just as I said earlier, my skillset tends more towards the metaphysical than the actually physical,” he said, and crouched down on top of the wall as he caught his breath. Humiliated was too strong a word, but he did feel a certain sense of embarrassment at the fact that Reid had been obliged to save him yet again. “I’m guessing that there’s been no sign of him?”

“Not even a glimpse. Though I can still catch the scent of him, and judging by how strong it is I don’t think he’s that far away.” Reid watched him for a long few moments more, seeming right on the edge of saying something, and then mercifully turned his gaze back to the dark streets outside. “How is Adam?”

“Well enough. I don’t think being dragged out into the cold did his chest any good, but he doesn’t seem to remember anything and he’s remained settled for most of tonight praise the lord. I guess time will tell if there are any lingering effects.” He reflected, yet again, on how Reid was such a decent man who genuinely bothered to care deeply for those around him. Tried his very best not to dwell on it for long, what with the object of his obsession right there besides him. “It’s almost dawn.”

“I’ve noticed,” Reid said. From any other man it would’ve sounded faintly mocking, but from him it was only a gentle acknowledgement of the unfortunate passing of time. “I may have to leave here soon, try and run to one of my nearby hideouts before the sun comes out properly and makes movement entirely impossible.”

“I reckon it’ll be up in about ten minutes or so,” he said, squinting at the steadily lightening skyline. Already he could feel the faint prickle of the coming sun against his skin, knew very well that if he remained out here much longer himself screaming agony would soon result. “Do you have one fairly close to here, then?”

Reid hesitated, for just long enough that his suspicions - honed by over a decade of people trying to lie to him - kicked into high gear. “Yes. Close enough, if I move quickly.”

He stared at him for a long moment, edgy and thoughtful. There was no way that Reid would reach an actually safe place before the sun rose fully over the horizon, he would either get caught out in it and hurt severely or be forced to hunker down in one of the numerous filthy and unsafe slums around here. He felt a throb of brief but intense fear at the thought of keeping Reid close, especially a Reid behaving how he was at the moment… But in this heightened situation, he was finally able to admit to himself that the fear wasn’t so much about what Reid might do to him as it was about some of the things he wanted to do to Reid.

He wasn’t a selfish man. For all of his sins, and they numbered more than many people seemed to think, he’d tried his best to avoid that. He sighed, wrapped his arms around himself and gave in to the inevitable. “Seems a bit risky, doesn’t it?”

Reid blinked, so hard that he felt the tremble of it through his body beside him, and looked over. For a moment there was open shock on his face, before it was smoothed down to Reid’s usual calmer expression. “I’m sorry?”

“Running all the way there, so close to the sun coming up…” He nodded at the sky demonstratively, the seep of slow orange that would soon blossom into a clear and icy winter blue. “Especially when there’s a perfectly secure room here, one prepared specially for this sort of thing, where you could spend the day and not have to worry at all about potentially getting hurt.”

There was a long moment of silence. Reid swallowed the first thing that he’d meant to say, a tiny jerk that somebody who hadn’t known him on a blood-drinking level wouldn’t have ever caught, and regarded him for a long few moments before he tried again. “I didn’t want to presume, or force myself upon you in any way.”

“Is it really a presumption if I’m deliberately inviting you in?” He asked, and was impressed by how level his voice emerged. He knew that the night when Reid had stabilised him was prominent in both of their minds, and he could only hope that any other thoughts about presumption and the awkward desire for such were nowhere near as prominent in Reid’s mind as they were in his. “I’m fine with it, doctor. I will sleep much better, knowing that you’re safe and not potentially burning to death in some filthy alleyway just a few steps away from my door.”

Reid hesitated again, but this time remained silent in favour of staring at him thoughtfully. He held the man’s gaze, again impressed by his steadiness, and kept his own thoughts equally to himself. On how he both wanted and flinched away from the thought of Reid explicitly in his space, about how he didn’t ever want Reid to get hurt but wanted to hurt him with his own two hands all at the same time, about just how handsome Reid looked in the dim light and all the ways he felt about those natural good looks.

“Well,” Reid said eventually, obviously reading something on his face. Although not, he hoped quite sincerely, the true depth of his dwellings. “If you’re offering…”

“I am,” he said immediately, because it seemed sensible to be clear on such a point given the time of day and the tendrils of warm orange seeping higher and higher into the sky.

“Then I suppose it would only be polite to accept,” Reid said, and then smiled at him in a way that made him want to swoon and flee all at once. He had never been as in control of his emotions, his desires, as other people had assumed, but in Reid’s presence he felt more uncertain than he ever had before. “Thank you, Sean. I will be sure to impose upon your hospitality no more than necessary.”

A part of him, a cruel part that it seemed like he’d been fighting with for as long as he could remember, wanted to snap that he already had… But no, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t entirely Reid’s fault, that he seemed unable to stop thinking about him for more than a few moments at a time. He nodded, trying to hide quite how unsettled he was, and jumped back down to the ground clumsily but with a great deal more success than he’d had getting up. Reid followed him and they walked back to the asylum, awkward but together.

\--

Unfortunately, as predicted, the other Ekon turned up the next night just as he’d strayed outside to check on one of the currently unoccupied outer tents.

He’d been distracted, if distracted was a big enough word for the direction that his thoughts had taken. He had been thinking, with an intensity that could best be described as desperate, about Reid. About his memories of sharing a room for an entire day with him, about hearing his breathing slowly even out into the even rhythm of sleep, about turning over and seeing him stretched out in a position of relaxation for once. They had been across the room from each other throughout the night, they hadn’t even touched each other once, but it had still been unspeakably intimate for him.

It had been intimate because of his feelings, quite simply, because of all the emotions that he’d spent so long trying to push down and that were now bursting out like wildflowers in the spring. He’d still wanted to yell at Reid for being in his space, but that was the most simple emotion to deal with. He’d wanted the man to be closer to him, and had felt a strange pain in his chest at the thought of him being further away. He’d wanted to touch him, and had been terrified about what’d happen if he did. He’d wanted to discover if there was actually pleasure in certain acts, as had been rumoured, and had felt a deep discomfort at the involuntary direction of his thoughts. He’d _wanted_ , in short, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that after so much time.

“Well, well.” All of that musing had, as stated, led to quite some distraction. And so it was a genuine shock, when he was trying to rearrange some bedding with rather more force than necessary, to hear an unfortunately familiar voice echo from behind him. “It looks like you were lying about your protection after all.”

He spun around immediately, to see the Ekon that’d enchanted poor Adam leaning right up against one of the tent poles. He felt a brief throb of fear, but successfully pushed it down in the next moment. It would be wise to be wary around this man, but he didn’t think he was truly afraid of anybody but himself. “I wasn’t lying. Please leave, while you still have the chance.”

“I don’t think I will,” the Ekon said easily, obviously not believing him and amused at what he no doubt saw as a pathetic attempt to save his skin for just a few seconds longer, and moved. In the next moment he was no longer across the tent, he was instead very close and very tense and with his eyes a worrying shade of pure red. “In fact, I think I’m going to follow through on my promise and teach a pathetic Skal a rather useful lesson-”

He had just time enough to hold his breath, to brace for pain and hope that he could distract this Ekon for just long enough for Reid to get his people to safety… But in the next moment there was a sudden breeze against his cheek, and Reid himself was there to shove the invading Ekon away with an expression of rage on his face.

The other Ekon stumbled back, having obviously not expected an intervention, and caught himself only with effort. He immediately flowed into a fluid crouch, glaring at Reid like a dog with its teeth bared. Reid, who he had rarely seen as anything other than unflappable, reacted in such the same way, arched his back and bared his teeth in a decidedly defensive position. They glared at each other tensely, in a stand off, as he caught his breath behind them.

Eventually the other Ekon, not entirely lacking in sense, acknowledged the lay of the land and retreated a few steps more with a sulky expression crossing his face. “The great Doctor Reid, I presume?”

“I would not describe myself as particularly great, but otherwise your information is correct,” Reid said, perfectly calm as if they were discussing this in some high society party. He didn’t ease from his defensive position, though, still kept crouching in front of him in a clear show of protection. “I do not have the same advantage, sir.”

“Dominic Church, at your service,” the Ekon - Church - said. And then, after a moment of hesitation, rose fully to his feet and bobbed a bow. He looked ridiculous doing so, and amply knew it judging by the expression upon his face as he straightened. “There’s really no need for us to be hostile to each other, doctor. If we look just a little deeper, I’m sure that we’d find our goals aligning.”

“I entirely agree,” Reid said, so neutrally that anybody who knew him - anybody with a brain, really - would’ve scented trouble a mile away.

“You see, all I want to do is develop this fertile area into a place fit for an Ekon of proper breeding,” Church continued, obviously a man without a brain. Which was a cruel thought, one that he felt mildly bad about, but an unfortunately accurate one judging by the way that Church looked past Reid’s protective huddle to give him an aristocratic glare. “And put a rather insubordinate Skal in his place while I’m at it.”

“You started off promisingly, my friend, but I’m afraid that I can’t entirely agree with you,” Reid said, and somehow managed to make the words ‘my friend’ sound like a grievous insult. Which was both a useful skill to have, and one so unexpectedly amusing that he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep back a smile. “This place is already fit for an Ekon, or a Skal, and Sean isn’t particularly insubordinate. In fact both him and this area in general are under my protection.”

“I thought…” Church trailed off, looking openly confused. He had obviously thought that he was lying, even when presented with explicit evidence otherwise. “Why would a Skal, the most pathetic of creatures, be under the protection of somebody like you?”

“You see, I don’t see anybody as pathetic. Human or Skal or any other kind of creature,” Reid said, and managed to make it sound perfectly reasonable. “But, if you require more than that, I will give it to you. Sean isn’t just any Skal, he happens to be my progeny.”

He blinked, hard. He had not been expecting such a statement in a thousand years, knew that it was so outside the realms of possibility that he hadn’t considered it likely for even a second. It wasn’t like he was fully enmeshed in vampire society, Skal or otherwise, but he knew that there were certain ways things were done. Even a relatively good Ekon, such as Reid, would rarely associate themselves willingly with a creature that was widely regarded as gutter vermin. The fact that Reid was willing to do so, for him…

Church looked openly stunned as well, if possible even more pole-axed than he was currently feeling. “You have to be lying.”

He felt a brief moment of sympathy, but wasn’t exactly cut up when it didn’t hang around. This man had been about to kill him, and then proceed to bleed all of his friends dry. If he wanted proper sympathy, he should really try being a nicer person. “You like accusing people of that don’t you, sir?”

“Silence-!” Church barked, like the most pathetic general he’d ever seen, and then cast one look at Reid’s highly unimpressed face and made the sensible decision to move on before he got himself into even greater trouble. “I was under the impression that only weak Ekon created Skals. That the stronger ones were capable of creating full blooded Ekon, like me.”

“The circumstances of my bond with Sean are rather more complicated than I’m willing to go into at the moment,” Reid admitted. But still didn’t repudiate him, still didn’t turn away from him and leave him flailing alone to even the smallest degree. “But rest assured, our bond is most definitely important to me and he is most definitely under my protection. Any threat to him I take as a threat against myself, and will respond accordingly.”

Church hesitated for a long moment, glancing between them in obvious disbelief. He didn’t like the man, which may have been a rather mild way of putting it, but he still mentally urged him to just accept his losses and leave. This didn’t have to be a bloodbath, this really could end amicably with just a lesson learned to show for it.

But no, Church proved himself yet again a man who had never had overmuch time for learning. "Maybe you're less powerful than I at first believed, Reid."

"I would urge you not to test me," Reid said, still perfectly calm but with a certain hunching of his shoulders that suggested trouble on the horizon. 

"I won't, not yet," Church said snootily, and smiled the kind of smile that was probably meant to look threatening but instead looked hopelessly unwise. "But someday soon. You see, I myself am not pathetic enough to let a promising feeding ground like this go to waste."

"No," Reid said, so politely that he flinched at it. "It seems like you're pathetic in an entirely different way."

It was an insult so clear that even someone like Church couldn't ignore it. The man blinked, and then glared like a child just before a tantrum. The atmosphere, already tense, grew decidedly more fraught. He fought back a frankly insane urge to offer the combatants some tea, just to attempt to smooth the situation out.

"Enjoy your time with your Skal pet while you can, Reid," Church eventually spat, a filthy look on his face, and finally stepped backwards out of the tent. "Mark my words, I will be back."

And Church darted off, fast enough that even his eyes blurred slightly at it. He would've been more worried about the man potentially lingering to ambush them, but judging by the easing of Reid's shoulders that wasn't actually much of a risk.

Which just left a thousand other things to worry about. Not least, the strange kernel of hope that'd formed in his chest when Reid had defended him without thought or hesitation.

\--

“Will he be back?” He asked.

It was later that night, and he’d just about managed to calm himself from the adrenaline rush of seeing the Ekon - Church - again. He hadn’t, of course, entirely managed to calm himself from the adrenaline rush of having Reid defend him in such a public way but he regarded that as entirely another matter. As it was he was just settled enough to sit fairly calmly at the table he kept in his private quarters, to watch Reid from across the room without particularly feeling the urge to pace or fret.

“I think so, yes,” Reid said, for once more agitated than him, and turned away from where he had been staring fixedly at the outside wall - presumably using his senses to vet all who passed - to give him a thoughtful look. “He’s the kind of arrogant who takes any denial, no matter how respectfully given, as an unspeakable insult. We shook him, and as a result he’s unlikely to back down without a fight.”

He made a face at that, couldn’t deny the shudder that crawled up his spine and seemingly right into his brain. He had foolishly thought, once Reid had restored London to some sort of normalcy, that he wouldn’t have to worry about a matter like this ever again. “You’ll be staying in the area for the foreseeable future, then?”

“I doubt it’ll take that long, he doesn’t strike me as a man with ample reserves of patience, but yes. I will be remaining here until I’m content that you and yours are safe.” Reid stared at him for a long moment, seeming almost hesitant. It was strange to see the man as anything less than confident, and he immediately was as alert to it as if Reid had actually screamed his discomfort out into the world. “Unless you mind that?”

He was well aware that he really should, that he should be downright chafing at the thought of Reid in his space for an indeterminate period of time. But instead he was surprised to realize that something had shifted within him, almost without him noticing; he no longer felt so angry or uncertain, in fact a not inconsiderable part of him was pleased to have somebody like Reid fighting his corner. “No, I don’t mind that. Needs must, after all.”

They stared at each other for a long few moments in silence, both uncertain. Reid looked rather like he wanted to say something, but seemed to stop himself just before he opened his mouth every single time. For his part he felt right on the edge of a precipice, a moment where everything could change all at once.

In the end he was the one to speak first, perhaps driven by the knowledge that said precipice was nowhere near as terrifying as it had once looked. “I didn’t expect you to do all that for me, you know.”

Reid blinked at him in response, again a touch uncertainly. For once the other man also seemed entirely unsure of where to stand in this conversation. “To protect you…?”

“That was more than protecting,” he said, before Reid could remind him that he’d explicitly invoked and then asked for his protection. He felt a strange unwillingness to allow himself to get distracted from this, a knowledge that if he allowed himself to turn aside again now he would never get back on the path of bravery ever again. “You claimed me, you deliberately said that I was your progeny even when that wasn’t entirely true. I would’ve never expected an Ekon, even an Ekon such as yourself, to do that.”

Reid was a smart man, possibly the smartest man that he’d ever met, but he seemed terribly confused by that for some reason. “Whyever not?”

“I may not be as well versed in Ekon norms as certain people, but I still know the lay of the land,” he said deliberately, perhaps even so far as pointedly with Reid still looking at him in such a way. “Most Ekon, most people in the know in general, have a rather low opinion of Skals. They consider them - us - to be vermin, something even worse than the rats scuttling around in the shadows and gutters. No Ekon that I’ve ever heard of would actually want to be tied to one of us, would probably actually go to great lengths to deny the connection entirely.”

“I see,” Reid said slowly, and judging by the expression in his eyes he really did see but was just determined to be stubborn about it. “I don’t consider that to be true.”

He experienced a brief and conflicting urge to both roll his eyes, which he had never done before, and chuckle warmly, which he should never want to do around Reid. He settled for what he considered a vague midpoint, a slightly warmer smile than usual. “Now there’s a surprise.”

“If anything I consider you far better than me, the Sad Saint of the East End protecting his flock even in his afterlife. A man who genuinely cares about people, who genuinely wants to help them even when they don’t entirely deserve it. A man who has fought through life over and over again, not for himself but for the people around him,” Reid said softly, and he fought the urge to writhe under the compliments. “If anything, I would’ve thought that you’d be far more disgusted to be in my presence than the other way around.”

Even now, a part of him wanted to run screaming into the night and leave this entire conversation - this entire life - far behind. He forced himself not to give into that part, kept meeting Reid’s gaze as steadily as he could. “Because of what you did to save my life?”

Reid looked nakedly shocked for a long moment, as if he genuinely hadn’t expected him to ever bring it up. He couldn’t exactly blame the man, he felt rather light headed himself. “Ah, yes.”

He considered this for a long few moments, still forcing himself to meet Reid’s gaze. Was slightly startled to find that, now the time for acceptable yelling had actually arrived, he no longer felt inclined to anger. There was still resentment there, still a crawling kind of embarrassment at how much he had been forced to bare, but it was slowly starting to fade from what it once had been. That kernel of hope, that one Reid had implanted earlier with his instinctive defence, was slowly but surely starting to grind the old lodestone down.

“I was angry at you for a long while, I must admit,” he said slowly, tentatively. He wasn’t used to actually acknowledging his emotions, to working through them in his own time instead of shoving them down inside himself in an iron vault and throwing away the key. “I didn’t want to be, I’m not entirely sure that it says great things about me or fits in with the person I try to be, but I was. I told you my reasons, even though in hindsight those reasons were rather warped, and you threw them back in my face. I shared with you my faith, and instead of respecting it you systematically broke me down until I had nothing left. I tried to protect myself, and you rode roughshod over me and laid all my vulnerable spots bare. And after all of that, as if it wasn’t all enough, you forced me to my knees and made me submit to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Reid said, and sounded like he actually meant it. He was surprised to realise that the fact of how decent a person the man was no longer rankled quite as much as it once had, but rather started a warm glow in the vicinity of his chest. “I thought I had to do it to save both your life and the lives of the people you care about, but that was no excuse.”

“I thought that for a long time,” he said quietly, and then decided that it would just be cruel to leave Reid in an agony of suspense. “I was wrong. It is a good excuse, and it was necessary. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you had left me to my own devices, I suppose nobody ever can, but I know for a fact that I didn’t feel quite like myself until you gave me your blood. I was… Unhinged, I think. I was making bad decisions, or at the very least reckless ones, and who knows how far that would’ve gone if you hadn’t intervened.”

Reid stared at him, his expression one of utter shock. It was if he had just taken a plank to his head on a whim, or turned into a unicorn in the blink of an eye. He felt a certain sense of amusement, one that he quickly tried to stifle, at seeing the usually urbane man so much on the back foot.

“I forgive you.” There were more important things than petty amusement, after all, such as letting go of the weight that he’d been carrying around with him for months on end. Perhaps even years on end, slogging step after slogging step and never really allowing himself to reach for anything that he actually wanted. “I think I actually forgave you long ago, but I guess foolish pride got in the way of me being able to admit it.”

Reid swallowed, had to run a hand over his beard - an automatic stroke - before he seemed to remember what words were and the purpose they could be used for. “You don’t have to-”

“I know. Believe me, I do know. You’re a good man, and I believe fully that you wouldn’t hold it against me if I didn’t.” He didn’t quite shrug, he had never really got the hang of being quite so casual even around the few people he properly trusted, but he did give a casual twitch of his shoulders. One apparently so shocking that Reid’s eyes fell to the shift of his biceps, and didn’t move away again. “Which makes it all the more freely given, I think. I’m not doing this out of fear or politeness, I’m doing it because I want to.”

“I’m not sure the world deserves you, Sean,” Reid said very slowly, and gave a rueful smile that had the side effect of making him look distractingly handsome. “I’m well aware that I certainly don’t.”

“You’re a good man, doctor. Your only sin, if you have any, is that you take far too much on your shoulders. You believe the entire world is up to you, the bad bits far more than the good, and you torture yourself as a result. I should know, I think it’s something we very much have in common.” He grinned at Reid, slightly helpless under the force of that smile, and was startled when Reid’s rueful expression relaxed into something far gentler. They grinned at each other for a long few moments, all alone in his room and - for all that he cared at present moment - all alone in the world. “...Come on. Let’s get the asylum set up for the day, and then you can rest here again until night falls. It’s the least I can do, after all you’ve done for me.”

“I appreciate it,” Reid said softly, and bowed his head with that gentle smile still upon his lips. “And I will follow your lead, for as long as you wish me to.”

His mind was whirling again, as they comfortably got to work, but it wasn’t exactly a negative kind of whirl this time. Instead it was whirling in endless, happy thought. That kernel of hope growing and growing, until it glowed all the way through him.

\--

The next night started out as awkwardly as ever, now he had finally relented and allowed Reid into his life. He woke up the moment the sun dipped below the horizon, he turned over in his bed and his eyes immediately met Reid’s where he was rising from his huddle of blankets on the floor. Their gazes met for a long moment, a brush of intimacy that practically had him gasping from that alone, and all his complicated emotions towards Reid blossomed again; the barely there anger, the steadily reducing resentment, the sense of warm affection, the rush of attraction that should’ve been terrifying but that instead felt incredibly right.

And then, because Reid was both a smart and kind man, he blinked and broke the connection. Reid got up smoothly and, with only a few polite words to smooth everything over, moved out to check the perimeter again. Like a hunting dog, doing what he was best at.

A part of him immediately wanted to call the man back, and for once he didn’t dismiss that part as absurd or inappropriate. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to ever fully acknowledge his emotions, all signs at present moment pointed to no, but this time at least he allowed himself to sit with them. He wanted Reid to come back, and not just so he could yell at him. He wanted Reid in his space, and not just so he could indulge in more pointless rage. Reid had done bad things, but he had his reasons for doing so and had apologised for those reasons sincerely. There was no point in being angry at him.

The night progressed as normally as it ever did, at a place like the night asylum. Reid did a few more circuits of the perimeter, watching closely, and then paused. He briefly popped his head out to check on the delay, more out of interest than anything else, and was slightly startled and then slightly amused to see that Reid was checking over a man who he knew had little more than a cold. A few other residents of the night shelter approached him afterwards, all with their own mild complaints, and Reid dealt with them all in much the same thorough way.

He withdrew into the shadows, content in the knowledge that Reid would probably be a little too distracted by his dual duties of watching out for Church and taking care of literally every ailment in London, and watched for a while. And as he did he reflected that his resentment was genuinely growing smaller too, dissipating under the light of Reid’s sheer goodness as a person. He could finally acknowledge that certain things had had to be done, and although he wished his way of doing them had been somewhat kinder the fact that Reid wished that too made the whole thing somewhat better.

Reid finally finished checking people over, more because most of them had retired to their beds than because the tide of illness in London had been stemmed, and did one more circuit of the asylum walls before allowing himself to be briefly called over by the Paxton sisters. The two of them were slowly recovering from their misfortunes, he fancied at least a little because of his help, but they still often turned up at the asylum at night either to offer their services or just to keep him company. They both exchanged words with Reid politely - Giselle slightly acerbic but with an edge of fondness underneath, and Lottie kindly - and Reid answered just as politely because he was a fundamentally good man.

He didn’t stand in the shadows this time, he was too busy completing his own business inside the shelter itself, but he did use his heightened senses to listen in. And as he did so, enchanted by the soothing rumble of Reid’s voice, he reflected on the affection that had started to take the place of the fruitless anger and the harmful resentment. The fact of the matter was that Reid was an exceptionally good man, was kind and polite and would work until he dropped just to make life a little better for the people around him. Once all the pointless barriers were removed, that knowledge was incredibly easy to revel in.

Time passed fairly quickly after that, the business of the night sweeping him away as it ever did, and he allowed himself to stop thinking about Reid for just a while. There were sheets to fold, people to tend to, an entire bustling organism to keep running because the consequences if it failed would be disastrous. He buried himself in his work as best he could, and as such it was somewhat of a surprise when he glanced up halfway through the night to see Reid leaning in the doorway and watching him.

Their eyes met for a long moment, a moment that took his breath away, and then Reid gave a small smile and nodded. The man had obviously just been checking on him, and that check completed he turned on his heel and returned to what he obviously regarded as his job of guarding them all.

He stood in the middle of the shelter, clutching some bandages in his hand in a faintly ridiculous fashion, and stared after Reid’s retreating form. And thought, with an intensity that really shouldn’t have been a surprise to him but that most definitely was.

He had never really viewed attraction as a good thing before, even when he had experienced it. He no longer allowed the events of his childhood to bother him much, he could’ve sworn, but the one area they seemed to have poisoned was the world of romance. Often he couldn’t help but worry what a partner would do to him if they had him in his power, or what he would do to a partner if finally given power of his own, or what they could do to each other. His brain had the unique skill of turning what should’ve been a positive thing into a chaotic whirl of misery and terror.

But maybe, just maybe, it didn’t have to be that way anymore. Maybe a relationship didn’t have to be about power balances, about who could do the other one the most harm. Maybe it could be a positive thing, something to enrich his life and allow him to be just a little less alone. Maybe he could allow his heart to flutter when Reid looked in his direction, could allow himself giddy fantasies of what they might get up to together, could even allow himself to actually reach for what he wanted for once instead of flinching instinctively back from any display of daring.

He had been afraid for what seemed like all his life, as long as he could remember. He had been terrified to reach for things, or desire things, or even to basically want things. He had forced himself deliberately into a little box where he was eternally selfless, by design not an actual person with actual desires but rather just a tool to make the world better for everybody else. He had been coiled into a defensive ball for so long, never once reaching for things because he truly feared that he didn’t deserve it.

But maybe, just maybe, he did deserve nice things. And maybe, just maybe, he could actually reach for his attraction to Reid without his entire world crumpling into disaster.

Once he was done with his work that night he extended his senses again, tentatively, and tracked the familiar form of Reid as he wandered along the outside wall and kept track of the outside forces that meant to destroy them all. He allowed himself, in the privacy of his room, to trace every movement and every deliberation and every single bit of evidence that the man was just as good as he seemed.

And, sitting alone in his room and dreaming about how maybe that didn’t have to be the case forever, he made his decision. Perhaps he would go after Reid, after Jonathan, after all.

\--

Jonathan came in just before dawn, looking faintly tired. Looking at him he got a sense of just how hard he had been working on his behalf, and was touched. Very few people had gone to such lengths for him before, let alone somebody so personally attractive to him.

He was already sitting on his bed, having decided after some internal debate that it was best to get that little stumbling block out of the way first. He smiled at Jonathan as he came in, and was pleased to raise the ghost of a small smile in return. “No sight of him?”

“No,” Jonathan answered, and rubbed a hand over his face. When he pulled the hand away he looked a little less tired, but still worn down in a way that he hadn’t seen in months if ever before. “I can sense him though. He’s been sneaking steadily closer throughout the day. If I was a betting man, which I’m generally not, I would say that tomorrow is the day he’s going to go for it.”

“Well, at least you’ll be here to show him off,” he said loyally, and smiled again when Jonathan blinked at him in mild confusion for that show of confidence. He supposed he deserved that, considering how long he’d been neutral to Jonathan’s presence at best. “You do so much for me, for us.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Jonathan said slowly, with the air of a man picking his way through a conversational minefield. He felt sad, briefly, that he had given cause for that air; but then reminded himself that there had been reason for doing so at the time, and that if he was brave enough he could perhaps get them moving past it. “After everything.”

He smiled at Jonathan gently, perhaps a touch pointedly. “I said that I forgive you. I meant it, you know.”

“And I believe you, I have no reason not to, but it’s going to take a while for me to believe I deserve it,” Jonathan said solemnly, and hesitated for a moment before glancing at the wall. He waited patiently, knowing the other man was using his advanced sight to track the passage of what went on outside. “I definitely left it a bit late tonight, unfortunately. It’s going to be a struggle to get to even a safehouse, considering that the sun is already rising in the sky. Are you alright with me sticking around for just a little while longer?”

“Yes, of course. But…” Here was the point where he had to screw his courage to the sticking place, and suddenly he was terrified. He hesitated for a long few moments, biting his lip uncertainly, and then looked up to meet Jonathan’s concerned eyes on him and made his decision all at once. “I was just thinking, wouldn’t you be more comfortable sharing my bed instead of sleeping on the floor like you have been?”

Jonathan had obviously not been expecting that. Jonathan, by the look of him, had quite possibly been expecting the exact opposite of that. The man looked at him in open shock, seeming about two steps away from actively gawping in the manner of an observer at some sideshow.

He wasn’t by nature a particularly nervous man, at least not when an Ekon wasn’t stalking him with murderous intent, but he couldn’t deny a flutter of anxiety as the silence between them stretched. He found himself fidgeting, full of beans in a way that he hadn’t been for at least thirty years. “Of course, I don’t mean to press you in any way. If you would be more comfortable on the floor...”

“No, no. I wasn’t going to say that,” Jonathan interrupted him, mercifully, and hesitated for a long moment. They were both a little shocked, he thought, when the man firmed his shoulders and walked across the room to sit gently besides him on the bed. “I wasn’t going to say anything like that at all.”

There was another long moment of silence, but considerably more charged this time. They sat besides each other on the bed, both hesitant and unsure where to go next. He could feel Jonathan’s body intimately all alone his side, the press of his shoulder and thigh and the throb of blood - rat blood, he guessed? - intimately radiating from his core. He hadn’t been so close to another human being in years, had never been so close to another human being with such intimacy in mind, and it terrified and thrilled him all at once.

“You’re surprised,” he broke the silence eventually, when he deemed that he either had to do so or risk the two of them just sitting there all day.

“A little,” Jonathan admitted, not even trying to bluff. The man gave him a quick sideways glance, a flash of red eyes that had him intrigued, and then glanced away again uncertainly. “I won’t lie, Sean. For most of the past few months, these days included, I thought that you hated me.”

“Never,” he said, and was briefly surprised by how passionate he was on the point. He had spent months a little uncertain on the matter himself, but now push came to shove he knew exactly what his answer was. “I was angry at you for a long time, I will admit, but even while I was at my worst I never hated you. It caused me great amounts of confusion, actually. I felt like I should be angrier at you, but I wasn’t. I felt like I shouldn’t admire you, but I did. I felt like I shouldn’t want you after all you’d put me through, shouldn’t want anybody after all the world has put me through, and yet… There you were, and I wanted you so very much.”

“Sean,” Jonathan said softly, and in that word was everything that he’d never dared to hope for. An entire world of gentleness and affection and longing which, to be entirely honest with himself, he had never entirely believed he deserved. “I really have put you through so much, haven’t I?”

“Jonathan,” he said sternly, and thrilled when he realized - by Jonathan’s slow blink, and even more slowly dawning expression of delight - that that was one of the first times he’d actually said the man’s first name out loud. “As I said, I forgive you. Everything you did you did for the good of me and my flock, as much as I found it hard to process at the time. You’re a good man. Not just a good man, but honestly one of the best men that I’ve ever met.”

Jonathan looked slightly uncomfortable himself, in an awestruck way. It occurred to him that maybe Jonathan wasn’t that comfortable accepting compliments either, at least not based on his personal qualities as opposed to his professional ones. “I don’t know what I did to deserve the regard of a man like you, but I promise to try to be worthy of it for the rest of my life.”

“That’s a nice thought, Jonathan,” he said teasingly, slightly surprised to find that he could be teasing when the situation called for it. He had spent so, so long being alone and trying to pretend that he wasn’t unhappy with that. Now that he could finally stop pretending he felt almost giddy with the sense of release. “But a somewhat obscure one, I must say. Please, be honest with me. Does that mean that you want-?”

“Yes,” Jonathan said instantly, passionately, with a look in his eyes like he was feeling a little unleashed himself.

He couldn’t help himself, probably wouldn’t have felt inclined to even if he could. He grinned, a little mischievously, and finally turned in Jonathan’s direction properly; leaned in a little, until the sides of their bodies were all pressed together in a clear flirtation. “Yes what?”

It was hardly a surprise, all things considered, when Jonathan abandoned the polite dance and finally leaned in to take what he wanted. Their kiss was slightly awkward at first, being that he had never willingly embraced a man before and Jonathan was obviously fairly out of practice, but soon grew beyond that. He opened his mouth to Jonathan, and Jonathan swept in at first tentatively but then with growing confidence. Jonathan nipped at his lips testingly, and he froze for a moment before deciding that he liked it and giving an encouraging moan. They moved closer and closer, until they were tangled together on the bed instead of touching like youthful innocents who were only just discovering the depths of desire. They consumed each other, and they both enjoyed it incredibly.

They only parted when they were both gasping, both already a good way towards being undone by this sudden fire between them.

“Yes, I most definitely want you too,” Jonathan said, and he had to blink in confusion for a few moments before he remembered the thrust of their previous conversation. “I’m sure you’re already aware of this, I feel that I have hardly been subtle, but you are one of the best men I have ever met. And I dare say that I have wanted you ever since I met you, ever since I walked into that warehouse and saw you so bravely trying to soothe a beast who had tried to end your life.”

“Oh,” he said. Which wasn’t the most profound answer he could’ve given, but was the only one he could manage with Jonathan looking at him like that. He had never really considered another person’s desire as tempting before, as something that he thoroughly wanted to drown himself in. “You know, part of the reason I hesitated so much was out of fear.”

Jonathan gave a wry smile, one that made him look all the more attractive. He was suddenly struck by the knowledge that he got to be attracted to this man, that soon he would get to touch and carry that attraction through to its logical conclusion. The thought excited him, made him feel wonderfully giddy in a way that was strange and astonishing all at once. “Believe me, I can definitely understand that.”

He smiled, a touch disbelievingly. Reached out with his little finger, a flirtatious gesture that he had never thought himself entirely capable of until now, and hooked it gently around Jonathan’s hand. “I didn’t think that I deserved anything as good as this.”

Jonathan turned his hand, his great big hand, until he could wrap it entirely around his own hand. And then he lifted his free hand up to touch his face, didn’t avoid the ever present scabs that appeared no matter what he did but instead traced over them gently. The touch of a man who cared, the touch of a lover. “Neither did I.”

They stared at each other for a long few moments more, utterly caught in each other’s eyes. He still felt breathless and giddy, hopeful in a way that - for all his determination, for all his relentless ability to keep going through life - he had rarely felt before. He still felt a precipice yawning open before him, but this time he was absolutely certain that only good things waited ahead.

He was soon proven right. He leaned in to kiss Jonathan again, giddily, and uttered not a word of protest as Jonathan groaned into his mouth and bore him back to the bed.

\--

He woke up the next night to Jonathan sitting up in the bed beside him, scenting like a bloodhound at the air as the blankets fell down from his collarbone to his waist. He laid there for a sleepy moment, appreciating the sight of the man’s chest laid bare and revelling in the memory of getting to run his hands all over it, and then the atmosphere of danger in the air finally seeped through to him.

He came to awareness far quicker than he ever had as a human, when he had been regretfully dependent on tea to rouse himself in the morning, and sat up in bed besides Jonathan. His own senses quickly caught a regrettably familiar flash of darkness, a whisper of resentment and loathing in his mind, the smell of old blood lingering on a Ekon who didn’t know how to feed kindly. He already knew the answer to his question, when he turned to Jonathan and asked, “is he here?”

“Yes, he’s waiting right outside the shelter,” Jonathan answered, still concentrating intensely. And then, as he reached out to lay a supportive hand on the man’s arm, glanced over at him with worry crossing over his forehead. “Wondering where we are.”

He had never looked forward to a fight, not once in his life, but he knew that it was inevitable now. He took in a deep breath through his mouth, and let it out in a soothing rush. And then decided to do what he knew for a fact would actually soothe him, and arched up in the bed to lay a firm kiss against Jonathan’s mouth. “Go. I’ll be right behind you.”

Jonathan kissed him back for a moment, a moment so sweet that he briefly wondered why they hadn’t been doing it for months beforehand instead of stumbling into it only now, and then slid smoothly out of the bed. In a moment he was gone, his clothes snatched up from the floor in the blink of an eye and the door of his room banging behind him. He would probably have complaints about that in the morning from the residents, he couldn’t bring himself to care all that much given the situation.

He dressed quickly, efficiently, but still probably a lot less professionally than usual. He generally tried to look pretty put together every time he left his room, because his home was also his life’s work and he wouldn’t have it any other way, but this time it seemed of very low urgency. He threw on his clothes haphazardly, as quickly as possible, and then downright sprinted out of the door after Jonathan. He knew where they were, he didn’t have to look very hard. Through the corridors, out of the front door, until…

Jonathan and Church were facing each other down outside, both slightly crouched and both glaring at each other with blazing red eyes and shadows wreathed around their forms. He noted, with a brief sense of probably inappropriate pleasure, that Jonathan looked a great deal less more put together than usual; his shirt was still hanging half open over his impressive chest, his trousers had obviously been tugged on extremely hastily and his hair was ruffled in a way that made it very obvious that he’d had hands up in it all day. The lack of put-togetherness didn’t make him look any less ferocious, instead it somehow had the opposite effect.

Church noticed him a second after he arrived, and for some reason shot him an even filthier look than he’d been shooting Jonathan. Honestly, some members of the upper class seemingly couldn’t even bear to acknowledge the existence of the working class toiling away beneath them. “It seems that you’re a great deal weaker than I’d heard, Reid.”

Jonathan only crouched down lower, keeping his blood red eyes squarely on Church. If anything, the man’s dislike for him only seemed to get Jonathan all the more riled. “Whyever would you think that?”

“Not only do you claim to be the maker of a pathetic Skal,” Church said, his tone deliberately snooty, and gestured in his direction as if all three of them didn’t already know who the pathetic Skal was in this situation. “But even after having made such a mistake you don’t have the sense to disavow it. Instead you consort with vermin, and lower the noble name of Ekon everywhere.”

“Keep a civil tongue in your mouth, sir, or else I will be happy to remove it,” Jonathan said, low and lethal. He hadn’t seen the man this angry in months, if ever. Even when he had been saving London, pushed right to the end of his rope by the horrors that lurked in the night, he had generally seemed a great deal more measured than he was at present moment. “Sean is one of the best men that I’ve ever met, even if he is a Skal. He is far more worthy of respect and care than any Ekon I’ve ever met, especially you. You don’t deserve to kiss the ground at his feet-”

It was a nice sentiment, but even he could tell that Jonathan was just making the situation worse. He cleared his throat carefully, lowly enough that only somebody with vampiric hearing would be able to hear him.

Jonathan, to his surprise, not only heard him but glanced back at him in an obvious manner to gauge his opinion. Their eyes met for a long moment, in which he tried to convey restraint even though they didn’t have the advantage of speaking mind to mind, and then Jonathan gave a fondly resigned sigh and turned his gaze back to the incredulous looking Church. “One last warning, on behalf of Sean. Leave now, or face the consequences.”

Church glared between them both, an expression of pure and feral rage upon his face. He seemed darkly resentful, utterly stunned at not having the world handed to him on a platter and determined to take revenge because of it. Such was the way, with men who had never been told ‘no’ once in their lives. “I think I’ll take the consequences. No doubt they’ll be as pathetic as you are.”

And, with that dramatic and threatening pronouncement, he withdrew quite suddenly. Slunk back into the shadows, at first leaving only a pair of sinister red eyes and then nothing at all. He had seen Ekon disappear before, usually at a distance, but this time it was even more worrying than before. 

He waited for about a minute, tensely. And then for another minute afterwards, tense and confused. He probably should’ve got more used to game playing, over the years, but he was a straightforward man who preferred associating with generally straightforward people and so this was all deeply unsettling to him. “Has he…?”

He didn’t have to wait for long, though. One moment he was standing just outside the night shelter, watching Jonathan crouch before him and keep watch like a rather distractingly attractive guard dog, and the next he was being seized hard by the arm and tugged off his feet. He had one moment of weightlessness, alarm bells sounding in his head, and then he was being thrown so hard against a nearby surface that his teeth juddered from the impact.

The wall of the asylum, he noted dazedly when thought returned, and knew a brief pang of panic. Not so much for himself, but for the members of his flock inside. What if they heard this attack, and came rushing out to see what was going on…?

Luckily, he didn’t have to move past that and start worrying for himself imminently. Just as he was drawing in a sharp breath and trying to draw the tangled strands of his thoughts back together, just as Church - recently reappeared, still with that expression of feral rage upon his face - was taking a step towards him in a clear threat, Jonathan jumped into the fray with a low snarl of rage. He dug one shadowy claw into Church’s arm, and yanked the man back so hard that - even in his dizzied state - he winced at the force of it.

What followed was a fight of incredible intensity, so fast that no human eye could’ve possibly kept track of it. Jonathan kept clawing at Church angrily and desperately, with far less finesse than he ever would’ve expected considering how well he knew the man. Luckily Church seemed inclined to fight back with an equal lack of grace, attempting lunges that never landed and bites that never came anywhere close to flesh.

He slowly clambered up to his feet, catching his breath, and glanced worriedly over at the only just closed door to the night shelter. And then jumped, shocked and scared in equal measure, as one of Church’s lunges went wide and landed on the wall just to the side of his head. He staggered back, had the briefest glimpse of a contemptuous expression, and then was relieved as Jonathan intervened and moved to yank Church away again.

He was a little faster on his feet now; given that the blow, which upon consideration he wasn’t sure was even accidental, hadn’t actually landed that time. He darted quickly over to the doors of the shelter, but instead of attempting to flee through them - and potentially put his flock in more danger - properly yanked them shut and made sure they were locked. And then he turned, putting his back to them, and went back to watching the fight. Church couldn’t sneak up on his people if he was keeping an eye on him, after all.

And keep an eye on him he did, even though it remained incredibly difficult considering the rate at which they were moving. They were properly going at each other like beasts, no restraint on either side and no mercy either. He could tell that Jonathan kept trying to freeze Church’s blood in his veins, something that he had always thought sounded incredibly painful, but by skill or luck Church kept just dodging his attempts. Church, in return, kept trying to summon mist around Jonathan’s feet but obviously wasn’t smart enough to realize that such a tactic wouldn’t work unless Jonathan stayed in one place for a significant amount of time. They weren’t evenly matched, Jonathan was obviously a lot stronger from the very beginning, but Church was just hardy enough that it was becoming far more of a battle than he would’ve liked.

Church was obviously well aware of this fact, and seemed little inclined to fight fair if he could at all get away with it. The man kept casting furious glances in his direction for some reason, furious and hungry glances that made him feel like meat on a platter, and he shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of them. And then, with a dawning sense of horror, realised that it was far harder to move his feet than he should’ve been.

He jumped awkwardly up at the last moment, digging his fingernails into the wall, and the ground exploded underneath him. He felt pain ripple up through his left ankle, but luckily there seemed to be no other side effects as he dropped back down to the ground. His heart still pounded hard in his chest, though, at the fact that he had been attacked yet again.

Jonathan snarled, obviously fretful at seeing him hurt even the slightest bit, but unfortunately he had frozen for just long enough for Church’s unfortunate tricks to work. The ground exploded beneath him, a harsh column of mist, and he was thrown up into the air in a way that looked decidedly painful. He landed in the next moment easily, obviously a little beaten up but not seeming particularly hurt, but it still looked painful and he still desperately wished that it hadn’t happened.

Church gave a smug and shadowy grin, obviously thinking that he was on the path to victory, and decided to press his advantage. Except, confusingly, his advantage didn’t entirely seem to involve Jonathan. He spared the man a brief kick, one that Jonathan had no choice but to take with a muffled snarl, and then spun in his direction in a shocking move. He barely had time to duck as several blood spears flew in his direction, and even with his sudden attempt at a dodge several still pierced him through the arm and side and even thigh. They were glancing blows, not a full penetration by any means, but they still hurt.

He whimpered himself, attempting to breathe deep to counteract the harshness of the pain, and Church gave a smug laugh as he lifted his hand again. This was, in his eyes, obviously a fight that was allowed to involve bystanders. The thought sickened him, in a way that very few things had ever since he had become a Skal. To involve an innocent, even though he admittedly didn’t entirely fit that description, in such violent games…

Jonathan obviously shared his thoughts, and also seemed to share his exact opinion on such thoughts. He threw himself into the fight with even more ferocity than before, a level of angry violence that he hadn’t seen from him - or, indeed, anyone - for months now. Church, having obviously not expected such a surge, was driven back underneath it and left obviously on the back foot. The man just about managed to remain in the fight, but was doing so on borrowed time. 

He wondered why Church was still in the fight even now, to be perfectly honest. He had been outmatched from the very first, and while he was fast and had a lot of tricks up his sleeves he seemed unable to back either advantage up with genuine talent. If Jonathan had been truly trying, truly focusing his entire being on the fight, Church should’ve been a problem easily dealt with.

And then Church glared in his direction again, drawing Jonathan’s worried gaze with him, and he had his answer in one sudden moment. Church was fighting dirty, in a way that Jonathan couldn’t help but respond to and be distracted by. Church kept drawing him into the fight, for the sheer reason that he knew it would keep Jonathan distracted enough to never quite be able to go for the killing blow.

It was a tactic worthy of the military, and he abhorred it. Bad enough to draw innocents into it, but to do so only to deliberately distract your far more honourable opponent? Church was a bad man who meant them all ill, and in that righteous moment he resolved to deal with him by any means necessary.

He had his chance soon enough. Church dodged Jonathan’s lunges a few more times, clumsier and clumsier as matters progressed, and then obviously decided to use him as a distraction tactic again. This time he had the flash of red eyes to warn him, and then Church was barrelling heedlessly towards him at a speed that would’ve taken out any human and even a fair few Skals.

Luckily he was ready for him, not entirely bound to earth no matter his generally solid reputation. He just about managed to dodge Church’s claws, noting along the way that they were far less refined than Jonathan’s efforts, and leapt up as Church staggered forward in shock. He had never hunted living prey, not even in the early days of his new life when he hadn’t entirely been himself, but the relevant instincts were easy enough to summon up. He found himself profoundly glad that Church had unwisely decided to go for a physical attack, as he clung on with all of his limbs and opened his jaws to bite into the man’s tender neck.

Church obviously hadn’t been expecting that, and panicked as a result. The man flailed around with an utter loss of dignity, seemingly either unaware or uncaring that a low down Skal like him couldn’t do that much damage to an Ekon unless extremely lucky. In the process of his flailing he lashed out several times, with claws and shadows and even blood, but still was unsuccessful in dislodging him. It all hurt, it hurt quite a bit as he felt weeping wounds that would be slow to heal open up all over his body, but he held on nonetheless; he had a mission to accomplish here, and if he screwed his courage to the sticking place for just a little longer...

Jonathan charged in the next moment, and all of his faintly blasphemous prayers were amply answered. He clawed his way around to Church’s back, despite his attempts to shake him off, and Jonathan charged at his front and it was as simple as that.

Jonathan, freed from the need to worry about him or keep an eye on him outside of the fight, went for Church with all the force he had at his disposal. He swiped at Church with shadow claws, swiped at him with actual claws, even used his mouth a few times with enough violence that soon bits of gore were clinging to his beard. He no longer bothered to be gentle, he just went for Church as hard as possible and cared not a single bit for restraint.

He was, perhaps, a little more restrained; but that wasn’t so much out of a desire to be gentle, as it was a lack of experience. He kept his limbs tightly wrapped around Church’s body, no matter how hard he tried to struggle away. He kept his teeth firmly buried in Church’s neck, clenched in there like a hungry tick who needed blood to survive. He even allowed himself to drink a little, attempting to repair his injuries and drain Church’s will to fight all at the same time.

Church sunk under their twin attentions, and let out a desperate and breathy wail. He threw himself backwards in desperation from Jonathan’s searching claws and sharp teeth, but only managed to get a few steps back before his knees buckled. Those few steps were still enough to throw him off, to send him scuttling back to the wall and crouching there as he waited to see what would happen next.

Which was: Church collapsed fully to the ground, and braced himself on hands and knees as Jonathan advanced towards him. The man glared up at Jonathan for a long moment, defiant and yet scared as if he expected some great torture ahead of him. Jonathan was a kind man, though, and never truly inclined to play around; he moved forwards swiftly, and swiped his shadow claws once… And then stepped back again, composed as Church’s lifeless body fell to the ground.

They stared at each other in the aftermath. Happy, and breathless, and covered from head to toe in well-earned gore.

\--

Jonathan kindly helped him up afterwards. And then, when it became clear that he was a little unsteady just standing on his feet let alone trying to move, even more kindly slid a shoulder under his arm and helped him to walk into the night asylum. They didn’t see anybody else on the journey to his room, and for that he could only be grateful. He could explain a lot, but two men absolutely covered in gore and looking triumphant with it would’ve been a stretch even for him.

“Are you alright?” Jonathan asked, full of heartfelt concern, once he had got the door shut behind them.

“Just a little winded, nothing to really worry about,” he hurried to reassure him, and took a rather strident step towards his bed. It wasn’t really a surprise, when he found himself stumbling almost to the floor the moment afterwards and had to be caught up in Jonathan’s strong arms again. Maybe, he reflected as he was dragged back to his feet, having to admit that he needed help wasn’t entirely a bad thing. “And perhaps a little injured, from the fight. It’s not badly, I’m sure that it’s fine, but…”

“He did attack you rather harshly,” Jonathan provided for him, looking him over with concerned eyes. He wasn’t entirely sure if they were primarily the eyes of a doctor or a lover, but he allowed himself to bask a little under their perusal anyway. 

“We stopped him in the end,” he felt the need to remind Jonathan eventually, as the man just kept looking him over with that same expression of concern. Away from the adrenaline of the fight reality was starting to return, and he felt both uncomfortable at the attention and faintly guilty over the lengths they had been forced to go to. “Not that I’m entirely sure that was the right decision. Perhaps, if the poor man had been given the correct guidance…”

“But he wasn’t, and was a threat to you as a result. I appreciate your tender heart, Sean, but unfortunately if we hadn’t stopped him he would’ve just kept going. And I couldn’t have that, not with the risk it put you at.” Jonathan studied him for a long moment more, intensely thoughtful, and then gave a low sigh that left him with the impression that everything would be alright. He was mildly surprised when Jonathan scooped his arm underneath his knees and easily picked him up, but accepting of his sudden change in station. “Let me have a proper look at you.”

He didn’t protest, instead only nuzzled happily into Jonathan’s shoulder, and Jonathan carried him easily over to his bed as a result. He laid him down there, right in the sheets where they had made love just a few hours ago, and started to examine him with a careful and professional eye. He checked every single part of him, so thoroughly that he was writhing on his bed by the end of it, and didn’t move on until he seemed totally content with what he saw.

“You seem to be alright,” Jonathan said eventually, when he had reduced him to little more than an overstimulated puddle lapsed indolently on top of his covers.

He swallowed, propped himself up on his elbows with some effort. He wasn’t sure if it was the blood loss or the proximity of Jonathan, but he was feeling decidedly dazed at that moment. “I think I just need a little rest, Jonathan.”

“Mm, that is generally a good idea,” Jonathan said, his voice hopelessly soft, and then hesitated for a long moment. When he frowned at him questioningly, wondering what possible other ideas he could have, the man gave a soft little laugh and reached down to lay a sharp nail at his wrist. “Or we could speed up the process a little, if you wanted?”

The last time they had done this, in this very room a few months ago, the situation had been entirely different. He had been not entirely himself, dazed and restless and believing so very strongly that he was in the right. Jonathan had been forceful out of necessity, focused and matter of fact as he had torn him down to save his life. He should, he was well aware, be a heady mix of wary and terrified.

He wasn’t. Instead he was just very much aware that it was an entirely different situation, and that he had at some point started to trust Jonathan more than anybody else in the world. He sent the man a smile, shrugged a little in acceptance. “Why not?”

Jonathan smiled, a touch disbelievingly, and nailed open a slice of skin on his wrist. The smell of blood immediately filled the room, rich and dark and like nothing else in the world. He didn’t bother to resist when Jonathan took the back of his neck in his hand, and guided him down and in; instead he only opened his mouth eagerly, anticipating the taste of Jonathan on his tongue again.

It was just as good as it had been last time, except this time it was better because no painful emotions were coursing through him. He at first lapped tentatively at the cut on Jonathan’s wrist, and then increasingly more eagerly. Before long there was nothing else in the world but the two of them, Jonathan’s blood trickling down his throat like the very sweetest of wines.

It wasn’t quite enough. Jonathan had awakened a new level of hunger in him, and apparently it wasn’t just for the slide of body against body. Before long he shifted, actively clambered into Jonathan’s lap as he sought out more. Jonathan was confused for a long moment, not quite understanding how the position could be comfortable, and then saw what he intended and smiled acceptingly. He used his own teeth, far sturdier than Jonathan’s and made for tearing instead of gently slicing, to open up a new cut on Jonathan’s neck and suckle at that instead. The taste of the blood was almost more glorious from here, though not quite as glorious as the feeling of Jonathan’s arms coming around his waist.

After a while, though, it soon became clear that this also wasn’t enough. He felt pleasantly full, and perhaps a little better than he had before, but he got the sense that there was something just beyond his reach. He wasn’t an Ekon, and while Jonathan’s blood had stabilised him to a great degree he had appetites that blood alone just couldn’t fill. He hesitated for a long moment, and then drew just a little back from Jonathan’s neck until he could meet the man’s eyes. “I need a little more, I think.”

He had expected incomprehension. Or, if not incomprehension because Jonathan really was a very intelligent man, horror and disgust and a rapid expulsion from the lap he wanted to sit on so badly. Instead what he got was a bare moment of hesitation, and then Jonathan giving a fond little smile and a surprisingly decisive nod of his head. “Go ahead. I’m pretty certain that I can heal almost anything, given appropriate time to rest.”

They shared a smile for a long moment, he suspected both of them slightly dazed, and then he slowly leaned in again. At first he was gentle, still carefully feeling out just how far they both felt comfortable going with this. He bared his teeth, and gently ran them over Jonathan’s neck just a little below where he had opened the cut to drink blood from. It was easy enough to shave off just a little skin at first, to get his mouth full of the taste of flesh.

He thought he would’ve probably been happy with just that, thought he could’ve just about controlled himself, but to his surprise Jonathan stiffened and let out a soft moan beneath him. He stilled for a long moment in response, utterly shocked at such eagerness, but then decided to be daring yet again - for it had worked out so well for him, these past few days - and moved his mouth lower. He trailed his teeth teasingly down what remained of Jonathan’s neck, and only sunk them in when he was fully below the collarbone. He could get a little more flesh here, just above where Jonathan’s chest hair started, and it was glorious.

Jonathan let out another vibrating moan, tentatively encouraging, and reached out to wind his still gore covered fingers into his hair; and from there, all bets were off. He bit down again, actually tearing out a chunk of flesh this time, and swallowed eagerly. He bit down again and again, harder and harder, until the taste of Jonathan’s flesh was rich on his tongue and he felt satisfied in a way that he hadn’t done since he’d woken up to this new existence. There was no fear, there was no disgust, there were no negative emotions at all; there was only a sense of peace and happiness, and a steadily growing arousal that he didn’t want to ignore.

Eventually Jonathan, who was never powerless in any situation, wound his fingers tighter into his hair and gently tugged his head back. He pulled away reluctantly, but still in full control of his senses. His impressive chest looked quite thoroughly gnawed at, missing chunks of flesh and seeping blood in a way that would’ve been deeply worrying if the man involved wasn’t an Ekon.

They stared at each other for a long few moments in the aftermath, measuring. He thought that Jonathan had never looked so attractive, with his teeth marks all over him. And, to his surprise, the look in Jonathan’s eyes said that perhaps he had never looked so attractive with his mouth and beard dripping heavily with gore. Perhaps, he reflected giddily, they really were made for each other after all.

Jonathan still couldn’t read his thoughts, would perhaps never be able to actually read his thoughts, but he obviously got the general gist of them. He smiled again, and the smile was not only happy but contained an edge of mischief that he had never had the pleasure of witnessing before. “Was that as good for you as it was for me?”

He gave a startled laugh at that, but when he looked down he saw that Jonathan was indeed just as aroused as him. What a happy coincidence, what a happy life they had waiting for them ahead. When Jonathan leaned in to kiss him again, he allowed it. And when Jonathan spun him once more to the bed, reaching down with eager hands, he allowed that too with a joy bubbling in his chest that it was hard to restrain.

\--

_Three months later_

“Here again, Doctor Reid?” Giselle Paxton asked, a note of amusement in her usually grim voice.

He smiled to himself, where he was sorting papers in his office, and immediately laid them down in favour of walking out and going to find Jonathan. He nodded in a friendly manner at the few residents of the shelter he passed on his way out, but didn’t allow any of them to detain him for long. His work here was important, of course, but the joy that he kept finding in his Jonathan’s arms was just as important to nurture.

It had been three months, and if he had been expecting the joy of being with Jonathan to fade at any point it seemed less and less likely by the day. Instead, if anything, he just grew giddier and gidder. There was something impossibly sweet in having a bedmate, a companion, somebody who he cared for and who cared for him in equal measure. He had spent so much of his life believing that he would forever be alone and trying to reconcile himself to that fact, the knowledge that he no longer had to walk through eternity by himself was still warm in his chest and he suspected would remain so for a while.

“I’m afraid so, Ms Paxton,” he heard Jonathan say from outside, as he quickly made his way down. “I’m so sorry that you have to continue to tolerate my company, but I just seem to be drawn back to this area night after night.”

“I was going to say.” Giselle sniffed, but with how well he knew her he fancied that it wasn’t an entirely violent sniff. Giselle was still a spiky woman, used to fighting the whole world and cherishing her bitterness like a cloak wrapped around her, but even she had a begrudging fond spot for Jonathan after all this time. “You really do seem to be around here a lot lately. People are starting to wonder what possible interest a fancy man like you could have in a place like this.”

“Maybe I have somebody I’m keen on seeing here,” Jonathan was saying mildly in response, when he finally exited the building and stood eagerly on the front step. And then he saw him, transferred his attention away from where Giselle was mock frowning at him to look at him with a smile like the sun - better than the sun, for he could no longer walk underneath it in the sky while he could fully bask in the rays of Jonathan’s affection for as long as he pleased - starbursting across his face.

“Thank you for greeting our guest, Giselle,” he said, probably smiling back in much the same distracted way. He couldn’t entirely help it. Happiness, he was starting to find, was an extremely potent drug. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take it from here.”

Giselle looked amused at that briefly, before she wrinkled her expression up into her usual scowl as cover for any positive emotions. She was a smart woman, she probably knew full well what was going on, but he was content in the knowledge that she was a little too loyal to him - or, at the very least, her sister’s level of affection for him - to take any action. They traded a few more words, Giselle’s as sharp as ever and both he and Jonathan polite in return, before he managed to get away and take Jonathan with him.

The two of them moved through the shelter as quickly as he had left, if not even quicker. They didn’t say much on their way to his office, not all the people here were as tolerant as Giselle after all, but they did exchange several long glances. It was giddy to feel like this, giddy to be able to flirt and tease with no fear of retribution from some higher power.

“I missed you,” he confessed the moment they were in his room, the door safely closed behind them and nobody likely to interrupt them for at least several hours more.

Jonathan smiled briefly at that, but his amusement was far softer than Giselle’s had been. He couldn’t read Jonathan’s mind, as close as they had become, but he knew full well that the man felt as fond of him as he did. “I was gone a night, if that.”

He grinned in admission, but couldn’t admit to feeling particularly cowed. It was the easiest thing in the world to take a few steps forward, to arch up on his toes and throw his arms around Jonathan’s neck. He revelled in how much taller the man was than him, how much bigger and stronger. “So?”

Jonathan acknowledged this sensible point with a brief smirk, flitting attractively across his face, and a bob of his head. In the next moment he had leaned in even further, pressed their foreheads together in a gesture of intimacy that was still enough to take his breath away. “Fair, I suppose. I missed you rather a lot too, Sean.”

He chuckled a little at that, at getting his Jonathan to be silly when he was usually so solemn, but Jonathan obviously had it in his mind to go even further than that bone-melting admission. He leaned in, nuzzling their noses briefly together along the way, and took his lips in the sweetest kiss. It had been three months and they had kissed many times, and had done many other things too for that matter, but he still couldn’t find it anything other than intoxicating. He moaned into Jonathan’s mouth, and arched up even further on his toes so he could press their bodies all the more tightly together. He had never dreamed of anything as glorious as their embraces, and already he was sure that nothing else would compare.

“You know,” he said dreamily when they finally parted, and couldn’t resist the faintly ridiculous urge to remain arched up on his toes and nuzzle their noses together again. “A few months ago I never dreamed I could be this happy. Strange, how things can go.”

“Mm, I know what you mean. I seem to have gone from eternal misery to eternal happiness in the blink of an eye,” Jonathan said, his voice rich and warm. It always gave him a pleasant shudder, to know just how much he affected the man in turn. “May I ask what changed your mind, in your case?”

“You may,” he said teasingly, and grinned when Jonathan drew back just enough to give him a look that was meant to be stern but that instead ended up impossibly fond. “I don’t know, exactly. But I think that the biggest part was a certain feller, a tall man who should be far too fine for this part of town, who waltzed into my life and recklessly made me fall head over heels in love with him.”

“Strange,” Jonathan said thoughtfully, but there was a certain helpless look in his eyes that made his heart - vampiric, and shrivelled as it probably should be - grow several sizes in his chest. “As it happens, I fell in love with a certain somebody too. Except in my case, it was one of the best men that I’ve ever known.”

He firmly believed that love was always sweet, but these days he had also started to believe that love was at its sweetest when it was shared with a man like Jonathan Reid. He laughed giddily in response to that bit of romance, and when Jonathan lowered his head for another kiss he met his lips with joyful eagerness. The bed was only a few feet away, after all, and the rest of eternity stretched out before them.


End file.
